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Our Civil Society, strangled with too many layers of barbarity in the past centuries, managed to resume a bearably intact shape up to the mid 20th century, despite the ravages of two World Wars that inflicted unprecedented and ineffable pain to the nations of Europe. As if drawn by an irresistible impulse of self-punishment, the island lapsed into a selfish and unbending mode of conflict between the two major communities.

Though we are not as insular as we might like to think and most often we are affected by the decisions and interests around us, when the resolution of the conflict approaches, the bearers of rights and obligations are not any extraterrestrial or alien creatures. Everyone and each one of us is a bearer of civil rights as a concrete, individual person.

We are the associates who form together an ailing civil society, ensnared with enormous derogations from civil norms. The primary mission of civil law is the safeguarding of civil rights. As set out in the Institutions, (Gai, I, 8) “all the Law that we apply is pertinent either to persons, or to things, or to actions.” This three-part division had been elaborated on the basis of the ancient Greek Rhetoric.

The first part comprises rules regulating the capacity of persons as well as rules that govern inter-personal relationships emanating from the family.

The second part comprises rules governing things and their transfer among living persons or by inheritance after death.

Finally, the third part provides for the procedures for the protection of such rights before the court. Under this part the existence of a right is based on the existence of an action.

The initiators of the conflict started from an improvised notion of freedom and insisted in its pursuit, until one day as from July 1974 the actual civil rights and liberties became null and void leaving their bearers dispossessed, in an era in which slavery had been thought repealed.

This inadvertence coupled with the relinquishing of Abraham’s bonds in the form of institutions emanating there from, left us in a derelict society, without past and without future.

Once the civil society path is severely undermined and the temporal path had already been unconditionally superseded and abandoned, the outcome is a persisting conflict.

The former path emerged from a divinity protecting friends, partners, litigants, civilians, and all the institutions that prop a viable and lasting state.

Such institutions comprise good laws, the administration of justice and peace being not only indivisible and interdependent, but also a sine qua non essential for the preservation of law and order and for good government.

The latter path, on the other hand, had been deemed anachronistic and grossly overlooked as a means that sustained the peaceful co-existence of the two communities – for four centuries – between 1570 and 1974.

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OUR CIVIL SOCIETY – Part II

As a matter of vogue, some speakers very often pay lip service to civil society in an abstract and undefined manner in the current decade. Their rhetoric is duly appreciated as benevolent, while at the same time this is far from being sincere. We know, civil society relies on civil law and civil law unequivocally protects civil rights. This logical necessity leaves much to be wanted in Cyprus as civil rights do not exist without their bearers.

One of the most important premises of civil law is the existence of natural or legal persons who are subjects of these rights and obligations. A reference to abstract and undefined human rights without the concrete participants of civil society is misleading.

The most recent violations of civil rights escalated in the period 1955-1975 and form the basis of continuous and unresolved disputes between the Greek and the Turkish community. These disputes have created a havoc of uncertainty undermining the security of law and of substantive justice in Cyprus. This outcome is exactly the opposite of the norms worthy of the name of civil society.

The charm of civil law lies in its perfection and orderliness as far as these have been preserved throughout the three last millennia despite the violent and severe mutations inflicted in the course of history. Ethnic Greeks honoured Goddess Athena as the giver of the goods of wisdom, intelligence and of the creative arts. She dwelled on Acropolis, because with her wisdom she founded civil society.

Many civil societies survive without paying head to a long forgotten Goddess, but it is hard to think of a civil society without civil rights. This touches the outermost point of ignorance and fallacy. Some of the most salient civil law violations in Cyprus concern the protection of personality, the autonomy of private will, the contract of compromise, life, liberty and property protected by public order rules.

Nevertheless, private will is not allowed to exclude the implementation of public order rules. Moreover, a provision of an alien public order cannot be applied when such provision contravenes domestic public order or moral norms; for more details, please see paragraph 3.2 in my digital e-book “POLITY AND CYPRUS – The Chain Store Paradox” ISBN 978-9963-9630-8-9.

In a post-crisis era such as we have witnessed and are still witnessing in the present year 2014, civil society has been drawn farther apart from our reach as more and more persons realize the grip of utter poverty and helplessness. Adverse circumstances seem to grow much faster around us than the ability of our mind to cope with.

My foresight and admonishing voice saying “DEVELOP YOUR POWER OF THOUGHT – 50 Steps for a Successful Mind Control Mindset” have been too weak to get attention by over worn and outwitted readers to whom it was addressed; for more details, please see on Amazon [dot] com, ISBN 978 9963 -9630–3–4.

‘Who stole the people’s money?’ – This question comes from Thomas Nast’s cartoon in The New York Times after the outbreak of the TammanyRing case in 1871.

This is only one of many examples of corruption due to the transferability of judges and one of the most monstrous. It arose from the squandering of public funds. This feat occurred with the complicity of the then temporary and transferable judges of the ‘State of New York’.

The entire New York bar was moved and protested actively against the continuation of a system that did not guarantee the proper administration of justice and resembled a perpetual threat against the interests of the citizens.

Without delay we were able to enjoy functionally independent and permanent courts as from 1876 under Article 83 of the ‘Ottoman Constitution’.*

However that was not a remedy once and for all times. New-fangled threats against our financial position make their appearance very often. As sovereignty in our island tends to diminish from both malevolent and benevolent motives we tend to pay inadequate attention to some vital institutions.

When we find ourselves at the edge of the cliff, only then we realize we are in a quite unsafe situation. One can cite many instances of theft of people’s money. Such had been the case with the failure of the stock exchange institution.

Now again, we rewrite an unprecedented crisis in our financial history. Even when we come to legal protection, we find out: we are gradually and persistently falling behind.

As long as contracting and property rights offer benefits and costs that may be fully internalized by participants in voluntary exchange, markets deliver outcomes that are socially rational.

However, when we come to the problem who can guarantee that players in voluntary exchange respect the institution of the market, we come to the paradox where it is individually rational to take advantage of the situation and not play by the rules, once the market is not protected by an external umpire who can ensure that its institutions are upheld and respected.

Individuals who find themselves in such a predicament realize they have no one else to blame but themselves for venturing into a highly risky environment.

The smooth operation of certain absolutely vital human institutions, such as fulfilment of contracts, the respect for mutual obligations and the preservation of property rights is facing severe setbacks.

This state of affairs does not contribute to the overcoming of our deep financial crisis but on the contrary encourages further corruption and mischief.

Governments employ taxation to pay for the umpire services which are public goods. Without such public goods social interaction tends to decline to anarchy or anomy.

Legal protection relies on decisions that conform to the law which we call just. While in the case of acts or decisions of the administrative authorities, we do not call them just, but lawful. In the contrary case, we call both decisions arbitrary.

Stealing people’s money is neither just nor lawful. While much has been said and done in the name of the welfare of society and social rights, very little attention has been paid to the regulatory part of the administration.

The regulatory administration is an equally indispensable part of a sovereign state: taking care of planning, acting together and ensuring the coordination, cooperation and organization of administrative units, it regulates the relations between them, prepares studies, plans and programs.

As the financial crisis takes momentum leading to further arbitrary outcomes, we are bound to wonder why the regulatory authorities did such a bad job.

Why they let the centre of gravity to be displaced. How they let the country’s financial equilibrium to be so badly disturbed. Such disturbance is a highly dangerous menace and a shock to our social order.

The natural consequence today is a social struggle to re-establish financial equilibrium and to ensure the minimum essential state functions. **

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Argyro G. Toumazou

Αργυρώ Τουμάζου

Owner of Glowcal.org and Glowcaldx.com

P.S. Updating my press blog website with photos from metropole regions in the United States of America (USA) and Central Europe is a real challenge. I will keep you updated.